Deflating and inflating

After two genuinely great days, I had one shocking lesson this morning and it felt like a plank to the back of the head. A few behaviour issues that were probably not dealt with sternly enough and resulted in a really disappointing lesson was a tough pill to swallow. But welcome to teaching huh?

The temptation is to wallow in that place: just sit there and feel bad about myself. But fortunately I had a good chat with a couple of people, recomposed myself and recognised the points at which I needed to start looking at a different strategy and even just the way I can better plan out the lesson to keep the students interested.

I’m really glad that by classus horribilis was on the third day; and not the first. And there will undoubtedly be others. But I’m definitely still OK: it’s when there’s nothing left to change, no stones to overturn that I’ll really start worrying. And I’m nowhere near that.

The best advice I received in my first year of teaching was “you never have more than three bad days in a row.” That’s partly because teachers and students alike are a bit like goldfish, and quickly reset their internal scales of what constitutes bad/good days. But I’ve found that no matter what went off the rails, kids are flexible and adaptable enough that three days of a new approach or new commitment can pull things back together.

sorry to comment on an old post but its hard to keep up. Your comment “But I’m definitely still OK: it’s when there’s nothing left to change, no stones to overturn that I’ll really start worrying. And I’m nowhere near that.” I think as teachers we always have things that need changing and improving so there is never any need to get really worried.

I’ve been teaching for more than 25 years. There are still sometimes days like that.. when things just don’t go the way we hoped. The key is to reflect on the reasons. Sometimes they are beyond our control, but often there are things we can learn and do better the next time.